Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is it safe to house a small beauty snake with a larger one in a big cage? Any chance of cannibalism? I understand the usual reasons not to do this and explained them to my customer but he is still wanting to house two together. Before I said any more to him I wanted your opinion. Small snake is about 2 foot or so and the big one is at least 5 foot. Thanks for any input you might have.

>> "Any chance of cannibalism?"

There is ALWAYS a chance of cannibalism, rules do not always have to apply to all animals....period!

Although it certainly isn't like housing two Florida, or Eastern kings together, just look down a few threads to the "Gray Ratsnake question" and see what catastrophe happened there....geeesh!

Tell the dude you don't recommend it, so if he wants to still do it, it's his own stupidity if something horrible happens, especially with the major size difference on TOP of all this.......seriously, bad stuff can and DOES happen now and then, that's all there is to it, these are snakes, not goldfish.

Not only that, when something goes wrong with ONE snake, and it should become sick for whatever reason, the odds are BOTH snakes will become sick as well. There are just too many reasons NOT to do this, and no real "good" reason to do it.

It sounds like more than likely, this person is still going to go ahead and do it regardless of what anyone thinks anyway, but if he can't afford to house them separately, he shouldn't have them in the first place. ......that is my 2 cents!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I agree with Doug on this one. I'll also add that the larger snake is likely to dominate the smaller one, and keep it stressed. It may not let the smaller one eat, and if the smaller tries to eat, the larger may take the food right out of its mouth - or worse, start swallowing it from the other end = incedental cannibalism.

The only way I would even consider keeping two beauties together, is if I had a really huge cage - like zoo display size, where each could get away completely from the other. And - I would only keep two same sized snakes together. The sex of the cage-mates would be a factor as well. I could see keeping two females together, but that is about it.
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-Toby Brock
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research

Thanks to both of you for putting into writing what I have been telling him. I appreciate your info and help trying to educate the public.